Three coordinated scientific conferences, collectively entitled "The Scientific Basis for the Public Health Control of Environmental Hazards" will be held from 6/21-30/78. The individual conferences are "Health Effects of Asbestos Exposure", "Health Effects of Halogenated Aromatic Hydrocarbons", and "Public Health Control of Environmental Hazards". This format will provide an opportunity to examine and discuss a complex problem: Scientists are able, with increasing sophistication, to evaluate the hazards to health that may be associated with the manufacture and utilization of industrial products. But at the same time they share with society at large an inadequate understanding of how to make the regulatory decisions that would effectively deal with the risks and benefits that accompany the use of such materials. Input into the regulatory process of materials that both fulfill a social need and, at the same time, may pose a serious threat to the health of the worker at the site of production and to the consumer at large must come from many quarters; from the scientist, the medical worker, the manufacturer, the worker, the government and from the citizen at large. The social control of enviornmental hazards is the central theme of this coordinated series of conferences. The first two conferences will carefully examine the current scientific and medical findings in their respective areas. The scientific and medical facts will serve as vital inputs into the third conference. This conference will seek to develop the approaches, based upon the concrete evidence, for making the necessary regulatory decisions that may be required in each instance where a toxic material poses a societal hazard.